


mark me undone

by edel_im



Category: Super Junior
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Medical, Chef Meets Doctor, F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 15:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7393660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edel_im/pseuds/edel_im
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>my take on writemesomewords Tumblr prompt: "Everytime I go to the Emergency Room you're on shift. I'm not stalking you, I'm just accident prone."</p><p>also, i have exams coming up and my concentration is nowhere on the books now so hello distraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mark me undone

**i.**

 

Mia thinks she lost enough blood to worry when the curtains are drawn and the resident walks in to introduce himself. The cut on her palm wasn't deep but the nurse at triage agreed with her sister that she'd need stitches and tetanus shots. It had been a busy night at the restaurant and with the sudden influx of guests she might have forgotten caution in favor of efficiency and one thing led to another and next she knew, the knife was against her palm instead of the fish on the cutting board. Her staff had fussed, and then her sister was insisting that she drive to the hospital while she takes over and between trying to drive, ignoring the throbbing on her palm and fisting on the towel to keep from bleeding, she didn't have time to think on things again until she finds herself sitting on one of the ER beds, awaiting the doctor who would stitch her up.

The towel had been discarded earlier following the nurse's quite thorough cleaning of the cut. She had bled while being cleaned, and even her dressing now was getting a bit soaked already. Her hand was starting between a throb and numb and she was in the middle of wondering how long the wound would heal before she could get back to the kitchens when the curtain was drawn.

 **Choi Siwon, M.D. || Emergency Medicine** , his coat read.

Her next thoughts flashed in quite impressive succession she was sure it was the reason for her lightheadedness. Dr. Choi is a tall, lithe gorgeous specimen of a man who smells really nice and has a dimpled smile worthy of sinning. His voice reminds her of coffee and cinnamon - a combination that's smooth and almost intoxicating. There's no ring on the left or right hand, which somehow makes her want to smile a bit more than appropriate. He has big hands though. He clicks the retractable pen to scribble something on the chart and Mia has fleeting thought of big hands on bare skin, firm and gentle, rough and bruising and - _Fuck_.

Maybe she does need a transfusion.

"You okay, Miss.." His eyes flit to the chart for her name, "Kim?"

"Yeah," she nods, finding her throat suddenly dry.

"Tell me if it's uncomfortable, we could follow-up a dose of pain reliever for you." He looks at her hand, the chart laid by her thigh along with his stethoscope and bundle of keys, small flashlight and name stamp. "May I have a look?"

She offered her hand and let him explore her cut. He had come closer and with the added degree of his scent, proximity and the actual feel of his big _soft_ hands on her skin, she did not trust her voice to make a respectable sound at the moment. She heard his assurance that the procedure would take no more than 15 minutes, she'd need antibiotics, keep the sutures dry and that she'd have to come back after a week to remove stitches.

She manages an _Okay_ and sits there with her hand on his gloved ones, watching as he cleans the cut again with liquid soap and iodine. When she flinches, his masked face looks at her (wow, that's close) and she blames his suddenly crinkled eyes and the soothing brush of his thumb on her palm for her difficulty of breathing.

He apologizes and she nods again, lips pursed in a conscious attempt because you know, it’s hard to talk when Dr. Gorgeous is so close and there's lack of air and his scent is all over them and all. Mia wishes she can manage not to embarrass herself before this ordeal ends.

Dr. Choi's bedside manners is comforting to an extent, considering he was methodically pushing and pulling a needle through her skin. Thank goodness she does not get queasy with things like this. Conversation is surprisingly easy and by the time he's almost done, they know they're both from Incheon, he's covering for a colleague whose wife went to labor, her family owns Bridgepost, she works there as a chef, he attended medical school in Asan, she took culinary classes in London, he's been there on vacation and wants to come back and they both prefer tea over coffee.

She laughs when he confesses that Iron Chef and explosive tempers are the first on his mind when chefs are the topic. But then he tells her in that voice that his thoughts might have changed due to certain events and there's nothing she could do to keep the flush of her cheeks from coming.

He flashes her that sin-worthy smile when he finishes dressing her wound, and she hopes it's not just a post-suturing effect that she thinks his hand lingers on hers before setting it down on her lap. Sometime later he gives her a prescription for pain medication and antibiotics, and instructs her on wound care before giving her a schedule of a surgeon to follow-up with. Dr. Choi tells her to be careful of knives next time and her invitation to stop by the restaurant some time for a meal where knives are put to good and proper use is happily accepted.

She smiles back when he waves and goes to her car. There's a different kind of sensation on her hand now, and as she stops by a red light a block from home, Mia realizes it's not pain. It's actually a warm little tingle.

 

**ii.**

 

The next she sees him is in the same cubicle, three days later. He lifts an amused eyebrow at her and she sheepishly raises her other hand to him this time. Linear marks were bleeding on both sides and a nasty bite wound courtesy of their house cat, Snow, was on the outer side of her thumb.

"I pulled the cat from under the couch."

"That lonely, huh?" She actually jerked her hand back and he laughed at her playful glare.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Come on, let me see that again."

"The cat was stuck and my nephew was crying so I had to do something." She petulantly explained, obediently turning her hand over for inspection. "I didn’t think he'd go all hellion on me."

He grinned at her muttering, and she found some of her irritation dissipate. It's been steadily declining when he stepped into the cubicle earlier but she wasn't going to admit that.

"How did you pull it out anyway? These are nasty," he remarks, prodding at the wound gently.

"He was facing away so I had to hold the tail. Before I could grab his neck he turned and attacked my hand."

Dr. Choi shook his head, looking truly upset at the state of her hand. The cute little frown on his face told her as much. She didn’t understand the sudden need to placate him but she heard herself say,

"It's not that bad. I mean, it would heal eventually. Right?"

He nods, "You're still going to need shots. Are you taking the antibiotics on schedule?"

She watched him lift his head and look at her, and from the proximity she tries and fails to ignore the slight dent on his cheeks formed at the pursing of those well-curved lips. She bites the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. He's so good to look at it makes her giddy. Like a high schooler with a first time crush. Mia hums an _Mmhm_.

As before, he works methodically but keeps a steady stream of interesting talk that before long has her telling him about the dogs she owned before (turns out they both prefer canines over felines, which is good) and the one she wanted ever since (a Great Dane). He tells her about Bugsy, his four-year-old French bulldog, even shows a wallpaper of him on his phone. Mia gushes that he's adorable, the phone on her other previously cut hand, and misses the way his eyes had taken a soft look watching her. She wouldn't know that the smile following her compliment was because of her, and not much of their shared interest in dogs.

He walks her to the door because it's time to get the obligatory cup of coffee for his night shift. She waves with two dressed hands and slips into his car. If she passes him walking out of the coffee shop a few minutes later, nobody needs to know that she watched him from the rearview mirror and that he stood outside the shop sipping his coffee long enough to watch the tail lights of her car disappear.

 

**iii.**

 

Siwon walks into the emergency room after a month and finds her reclined on one of the Urgent beds, hooked to an oxygen mask and an ongoing nebulization.

He actually stops in the middle of the busy hallway, hands akimbo on hips and cocks an eyebrow at her. She's obviously in no capacity to speak, busy catching her already shortened breath so she raises a hand (now healed) and waves weakly at him. From the history, her asthma attack was triggered by a bouquet of flowers. He briefly wondered if it came from a guy she's dating, and then reminded himself that it wasn't his business anyway.

She was still for another two doses of nebulization, which gave him about thirty more minutes of working and not consciously putting himself in her line of sight just because. Halfway to writing an admission order, he gives in to the urge and looks across the room to where she lay. She's sleeping now, and her vitals are better. He was wondering if her boyfriend would come and how well he knows her to give flowers that gets her sick, when a stack of charts drop on the table and make him jump.

"I'd ask her out now if I were you." Donghae leans on the table, nodding to her direction.

"And what, trigger another asthma attack?" He comments drily, shaking his head as he writes the rest of the admission notes.

"Is that an attempt at comedy?"

His colleague scoffs beside him, pulling the stack of charts closer and flipping the pages to write his own orders.

"Come on, man, you obviously like her. Why else would you be frequenting her restaurant the last weeks?"

"Their dishes happens to be to my taste. There's nothing to it."

"You tell yourself that." The Family Medicine resident barks a laugh, handing a finished chart to a passing nurse. "And yet here you are wasting time when you could march right to her bed and say, _Hey wanna grab coffee_?"

"Tea." Siwon mutters. "She prefers tea."

Donghae shakes his head another time, unwilling to believe that his friend would be this interested in a woman he only met thrice (including today's) and under a blurred-line kind of interaction. Granted, she's quite pretty, tall too, maybe a little too drawn to hospitals though but Siwon ate food she cooked at least three times a week without coercion and Donghae had to reconsider. Hmm, maybe there's truth in food and stomachs and love for men.

"You are whipped."

"Shut up."

Siwon deliberately kicks his stool and yet they laugh. He goes to one of the patients and advises on tests needed, and waited consent before finding a bed for them. He sends another patient home and was walking out of the examination room when he notices that she has company now. The man seemed to have just arrived, leaning down to kiss her forehead - a gesture she readily accepts. She even hugs him back. Siwon feels his jaw tighten a little bit.

When she leaves with the ~~boy~~ man an hour later, Donghae pats his back sympathetically. Siwon manages to catch sight of her before the doors close. It _almost_ makes things okay that before her company escorts her further out, she turns and smiles at him.

 

**iv.**

 

"Oh my god, not you again."

He actually frowns after closing the examination door behind him. Upon looking at the patient file, Siwon ordered her put in a room because he had the good sense (aka concern) to talk to the woman before doing his job. She doesn't seem to be aware of how dangerous she is.. To herself.

"Alright, what happened now?"

She grunted trying to lift herself onto the bed and would have fallen had he not stepped in front of her, hands to her waist. Hers instinctively brace against his chest and the space between them is close to none. She whimpers her pain and Siwon sighs,

"What am I going to do with you, Miss Kim?"

It might have been the stress of the day, or the pain shooting on her foot, or the seemingly hopeless gentle tone his voice had taken but Mia took it all in and started crying - right on the good looking doctor's coat.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Mia. I didn't mean to--"

She was shaking her head, starting to ramble about slippery sidewalks and late minute Christmas shopping and damn it she already wore flat shoes and here she was yet again -- Mia didn't even notice she's pressed right up to him and he's murmuring words against her temple. Words like _I'm sorry, baby, stop crying now_ while his hand rubs soothing circles on her back.

"It doesn't help that everytime I come here I have to see you," she bawls.

He decides not to take offense because she's more likely frustrated and in pain. Siwon eventually coaxes her to the bed and she lets go of the contact to let him look at her foot. She stops crying but as the joint is swollen and she flinches even at light touch, she's put on pain relievers that before long has her in a state of high. The next time he walks in to check on her, she's with her sister and a little bit giggly.

"That's him," she tells her sister. "Dr. Choi Siwon."

The patient actually beams at him and he chuckles. Her sister Lyarra was a little more up for conversation, if not a little amused. Turns out she's a lawyer with a twelve-year-old son, her and Mia have another sister, Cara, who's an anesthesiologist at another hospital (he realized he's met her twice on convention) and Mia's the youngest who always wanted to cook. She confirms she has a penchant for attracting trouble and there was something about her smile that says he's that. His responding flush didn't deny it.

Mia complains feeling nauseous and wanted to go to the bathroom. He waits by the wheelchair, takes them to her car and helps her inside. Siwon leans over to strap her in, unable to hide his grin. Her hand finds his chest again and her eyes are glazed with medication high when she smiles up lazily at him and says,

"You called me baby."

He hopes her sister doesn't notice the flush on his cheeks before he ducks out of the car. Looking back down tells him he failed.

"She's going to be.. restless for a while."

Her sister nods, and thanks him again for the help. "Hey listen, if you're not on duty Christmas Eve, drop by the restaurant. I think it's time people believe you exist." She actually winks and drives off, while Mia hangs out the window waving at him. He chuckles and waves back.

_god, she's cute._

 

**v.**

 

Despite his excitement, Christmas evening rolls in with a mass vehicular accident that required all decks on hand. When the first patient is pulled in, Siwon knows any hope of dinner with Mia and her family is squashed. Of course he didn't buy a new shirt for that, or spent a number of his free hours reading on wine before buying one but the effort could have led to better end. He feels a twist of disappointment.

Still, duty calls.

There's hope and a small amount of guilt when he thinks she might get into one of those accidents and come through the doors anyway. It would be his twisted luck, and her misfortune.

He figures he needs coffee to straighten his thoughts. _Lots_ of coffee.

 

 

It happens around the second week of January. He looks up from writing orders and actually stops, because she bounds into the busy room cheeks pink from the cold, a bit breathless, wild wavy hair bouncing about and searching eyes spanning the crowd. He feels the air thin when she finally spots him across the room, and there's a megawatt smile that tempts the corner of his lips until he's doing the same. He's standing, she's making her way through, they're in the middle of the bustle and Siwon agrees things like these happen but not to him. And yet now.. it's wonderful.

"What happened this time?"

"Nothing."

She shrugged, then quickly amended her answer with a sheepish smile when he lifted an eyebrow.

"Okay, I might have missed my rabies shot. Hey, don't laugh, I forgot the date!"

"Busy at the restaurant, huh?"

"Well, you know, food to cook, people to feed." She nods matter-of-factly, hands thrown in the air for effect. "I'm can be nice on occasion."

He watches her and realizes that for all the times they've met, albeit unconventionally, she's still a big contradiction to him. She's happy and light. Also relatively safe, for the moment. The thought that she's defying plans of universe by being unhurt makes him grin. Yet there's that figure-flattering red dress tempting him to the sight of her very nice, very distracting legs. There's that whiff of her perfume between them now - airy, warm. Space is close to none and he wonders, wonders what it would be like pressed against her, bare soft skin under his lips.

She might have been noticing a few things about him, because her eyes are dancing with thoughts and he suddenly has the urge to ask about them.

"Well, I--" she clears her throat, shifting on her feet. "I have to go. It was nice meeting you."

He watches her lift a hand for a small wave and trances himself long enough that she's almost out of reach when he comes back. Siwon feels something that's close to panic and before he knows it,

"Mia, wait!"

She turns, dazzling smile and sweet scent and _whipped_ is the word that comes to mind and you know what? He couldn't care the least.

"Are you going to ask me out to dinner?"

He's captured. Gloriously stumped, too. Here he is working himself to a sweat trying to find words and there she is saying the very ones to him with a cheeky smile and an expectant raise of her eyebrows.

"Are you free tonight?"

"Eager are we, Dr. Choi?"

"Well, I don't think that's the term when I've wasted four chances before getting to the asking. And still you beat me to it," he laughs.

"Good thing I'm patient," she tilts her chin in amusement. "I meant that on the context of waiting, not as one injured. Although I do wait while I'm injured, you know, for treatment --"

She's beautiful and witty and cute and the voice in his head craves _more, more, more_.

"Yes," he nods. "I get that."

"Yeah."

They were in the middle of the emergency room, blue and red lights flashing on their side profiles whenever the automatic doors open, smiling like they're no one else's business. Which is true. And yet there the people were, with their own knowing grins and subtle elbowing as they watch the doctor and the chef paint an oblivious but satisfying picture for them.

"Seven good?"

"Mm-hm. I'll see you then."

For the second time that night he watches her walk from him, leaning against the triage counter because she's a breath of fresh hair he's loathe not to savor. She turns just before the doors close and gives him a wave, lip bitten in that stop-myself-from-smiling-but-I'm-excited kind of way. 

There's a moment between two people - a single one - where they can eiter catch fire or fizz out to nothingness and Siwon's determined to keep the flames up. _Combust_ even.

Donghae smiles smugly from across the room, but Siwon waves off his ribbing because he's already thinking of making dinner reservations and researching for flowers that wouldn't kill his date. The end of his shift couldn't come any sooner.

**Author's Note:**

> i got the "there's a moment where they can either catch fire or.." from Bones. I love Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan. ^^  
> thanks for reading! comments are welcome. :)


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